Like Daffodils
by Lexyqu
Summary: A means to an end, he tells himself, that's all she is. Until she's not. Platonic Shiemi/Amaimon, but make it romantic if you want. !Spoilers! Manga compliant, but also includes some headcanons.


This story follows the manga so anime watchers beware. I've also thrown in some headcanons.

* * *

From his vantage point atop the rollercoaster, Amaimon watches Rin happily surround himself with humans. They talk and laugh, acting all chummy but that's only because they don't know Rin is a demon, right? Humans don't like demons, and demons don't like humans-

 _'Amaimon!' she squeals, pointing excitedly at the flock of humans standing in the distance. 'Aren't they amazing?'_

When those two girls, no, just the fair-haired one shows up, Rin can't keep his eyes off her. Internally, Amaimon feels a spark of amusement at his brother's obvious interest. The girl looks down at her clothes with a self-conscious smile that's just a little too familiar and his good humor fades.

 _'W-what do you think?' she whispers, fidgeting with her robes. They're bulky and cover her almost entirely, leaving only her nose and mouth visible. She's flushes bright red under his scrutiny, the contrast with the green fabric making it even more obvious._

Sugary candy gets crushed to bits by his jaws. He spits out the plastic stick it came with and pushes the memory away. The humans split into pairs, and the girl and Rin walk away side by side. Amaimon takes a new lollipop from his pocket and tears off the wrapper.

Time to play.

xXx

He should have brought more candy.

Watching Rin and the girl wander around in search of a ghost is _boring_. Amaimon finishes a whole bag before they find it.

At least the spirit does some of his work for him, and Amaimon watches the girl chase after it, disappearing inside one of the attractions.

Now it's just him and Rin.

xXx

Amaimon doesn't think Rin likes him all that much.

The feeling is mutual.

No matter how much Amaimon teases and taunts him, Rin barely fights back, just follows him a bit and tries to take his sword back. It's frustrating in a number of ways. Why would Father and Big Brother be interested in someone like this?

It's not until he's drawn a good deal of blood that Rin finally gets a little serious, covered in those beautiful blue flames, and his hands wrap around Amaimon's throat squeezing tighter and tighter and Amaimon feels his endless boredom start to abate.

xXx

He's sitting among the branches of a tree, gnawing on his thumbnail, when his older brother arrives.

Samael talks to him but the words are lost on Amaimon. He wants to play with Rin again. It's all that stupid woman with the snake sword's fault. And now she's taken Kurikara from Rin as well. Who does she think she is, anyway?

The barrier slams into him, sending him crashing into a tree and maybe she's not so stupid after all. It doesn't matter. She's going to be dead soon. It's only fair.

"I want to kill her," he says, mostly to himself.

"You won't," his brother replies immediately. "If you kill any one of them, I shall slaughter you."

His brother doesn't make idle threats and Amaimon has no desire to die.

"Sorry. I'll hold back."

It isn't too great a hindrance. He made some preparations this time.

xXx

Her body is warm and soft against his side.

Amaimon strokes her head, out of habit at first - she's only about a head taller than Beel is now - but keeps going when he sees how much it bothers Rin. The teen barks like a mad dog but doesn't come closer, wavering at the edge of the magic circle and Amaimon decides to move further away.

It works like a charm, and Rin immediately rushes after them.

The snake sword woman tries to interfere again but is intercepted by Behemoth. Amaimon isn't too worried about it. His familiar is no lightweight.

xXx

Rin is holding back and Amaimon is running out of patience when a thought occurs to him.

The girl made for decent bait already, but perhaps she can be of more use. Rin likes her, doesn't he, so a marriage proposal ought to do it, right?

Amaimon doesn't waste time wondering why, of all things, that was the plan he came up with. Hurting her would be a better motivator, but Amaimon discards the idea immediately. He doesn't think about that too hard, either.

Rin attacks, but it's a downright pathetic attempt. Halfhearted. No, less than that even. It pisses him off so much that Amaimon starts to put some force behind his next moves.

It feels good to let loose a little. Well, as much as he can without exposing his heart and with that girl still sitting on his arm. By the time he remembers Big Brother's rule about keeping the damage to the school to a minimum, half the forest is destroyed and Rin is lying very still.

Amaimon doesn't feel so bad about the pool of blood. Rin will heal, and if he didn't want to get beaten up he should have put up more of a fight. Was he _still_ not motivated enough?

"How strange," Amaimon muses aloud. "Isn't this girl important to you?"

Rin spits out a mouthful of blood and glares at him. "Drop dead!"

That's just rude. "Well," Amaimon says disdainfully. "Guess I'm done with her."

Rin's eyes light up a little. Is he expecting him to just let her go? That's dumb but it means he cares, doesn't it? Just not enough. Not yet.

"Might as well take an eyeball, though." Theatrics aren't Amaimon's forte, never have been. He just doesn't have the inflection for it. But he's sat through enough plays with his brother, and sometimes his older sister, that Amaimon knows that in some cases, the words themselves are enough. Rin's denseness helps.

Amaimon raises his hand, holding his nails so very close to one of those pretty, vacant, impossibly green eyes. "I collect them for a cousin who's into the occult." He so does not. They don't even _have_ cousins, but Amaimon does not need rumors spreading that _he's_ into weird stuff like that.

Rin looks shocked, so his acting can't be all that bad after all.

"No!" he chokes out, " _Don't!_ "

Just as Amaimon wonders if he should deliver on his threat - Rin _still_ hasn't drawn the damn sword yet - the baby exorcists arrive, seemingly intent on saving the day. Amaimon can't begin to guess how they plan on accomplishing this.

"What're you-" he begins to ask, and they fire another exploding arrow. It misses his body, but like a gag scene from one of his Big Brother's manga, it ruins his hair. "Agh?"

The pink haired brat laughs, and before he realizes it Amaimon delivers a swift kick that sends him crashing into a tree with a satisfying crack. Big Brother said he's not allowed to kill, but if they die on their own it's fine right?

He goes after the taller one next. The bald kid reeks of fear but still jumps in front of him. Amaimon breaks his arm with the barest touch and he collapses with a scream.

One left.

It feels good to wrap a hand around the brat's throat.

"You laughed at me," he says, which isn't entirely true, but this one was acting like a leader so he should pay for his subordinates' folly. The brat starts babbling nonsense. Not to him, but to Rin, and Amaimon feels his patience hit zero.

He squeezes harder and the boy coughs up blood and Rin finally, _finally_ , does something.

Amaimon drops the girl - he'd almost forgotten she was still there - and the brat, and excitedly rushes to meet his little brother's attacks.

xXx

Big Brother stops their fight-

 _How dare he interfere?!_

Mocks him-

 _Him? Lose to that pathetic, half-blooded brat?! Impossible!_

And Amaimon does something foolish.

xXx

His punishment is a 'time out', suspended by a dozen spears with anti-demon wards bored through his flesh.

"This is for your own good," Big Brother tells him during one of his rare visits but he still smiles at the blood trickling from Amaimon's wounds.

A couple weeks pass, and Amaimon asks how much longer he has to stay here.

"Just until you learn to behave," his brother says. He's brought out a chair and snacks - none for Amaimon - and acts as if this is merely a pleasant chat between siblings. "I can't have you making a mess of things and ruining all our hard work, now can I?"

"Our?" Amaimon repeats, dully eyeing the floating cupcakes.

His brother smirks. "Oops," he says, "Now whatever could I have meant with that~?"

Amaimon knows this game. His brother wants him to ask and guess, play along, but nothing will come of it because he doesn't _really_ want Amaimon to know. If he did, he'd come right out and say it.

Amaimon knows this game and forgive him if he's not in the mood. He says nothing, and takes perverse pleasure in the annoyance that flickers across his brother's face.

xXx

He doesn't know when he starts thinking about her - or _why_ , it's been millennia - but he does. Memories float to the surface of his mind. Smells and sounds and sights he'd much rather forget.

 _'What are you doing?' he asks._

 _She's kneeling on the ground, hiding behind a bush he's pretty sure she grew herself, for that exact purpose._

 _'Shhh,' she hisses, and quickly pulls him down to hide with her. She smells like a field of spring flowers, and Amaimon knows the scent has nothing to do with the dozens of actual flowers she's worked into her hair and clothes._

 _Shemihaza points at something beyond the shrub and while he'd much rather watch her, he takes a reluctant look._

 _A human village, or rather what counts for one in these parts, lies in the distance. Next to it, a handful of humans toil in a field of half withered plants._

 _'No rain,' she whispers, despite it being impossible for them to be overheard. 'And the soil's no good here, either.' She falls silent as another human appears, and beckons the others away. Once they're gone, Shemihaza lays her hands on the ground. The power ripples through the ground, and green blossoms in the field as new plants sprout._

 _She grows too much in his opinion, there's no way they'll be able to use that much, but he says nothing. When she's satisfied, she turns and gives him a bright smile that he doesn't return._

 _He might have given up on dissuading her from preforming these small acts of kindness, but that sure as hell doesn't mean he intends to encourage her._

 _Unbothered, she holds out her hand for him, helps him up for no reason at all._

 _He doesn't know why they get along. She's everything Amaimon abhors._

 _Pacifistic to a fault, disgustingly shy for someone he_ knows _to be powerful, and a human-loving fool to boot. But she is his friend - or is he hers? He's never figured that one out - and as much as he hates them, he doesn't hate her._

Not then, anyway.

xXx

Finally, his brother lets him out.

When he's informed he's to attend school, Amaimon almost asks to be sent back.

xXx

He doesn't mean to seek out Rin. Honest.

But he finds him all the same, and some of the other exwires brats are there too. The girl's there, and Amaimon offers his greeting, throwing in the bride-taunt for Rin.

The bastard ignores him, just stands there, looking all white, and is Amaimon really supposed to just let that slide?

He pushes the girl out of the way. She'd been mildly interesting, back when Amaimon thought he could use her to draw out a reaction from Rin. His brother doesn't react, proving once again how useless she is.

"Why're you so white?" Amaimon asks. "Well, speak up!" He waits for Rin to answer but the boy just stands there.

"Ha ha…" Amaimon laughs, because how many times is this now? It's like Rin was designed to piss him off. "Ignoring me, eh?! I _hate_ it when people ignore me!" His fist is up and ready to punch that ridiculous face when he feels small hands on his back and then he's falling, hands and knees hitting the tiled floor, and he stares at it in utter disbelief.

Did she really just- No. Fucking. Way.

Still, he has to ask, if only to truly make it real because surely, he must be imagining things.

"Did you just… _push_ me?"

She trembles like a leaf in the wind. Eyes wide but for once there's something there besides carefree happiness or mindless human fear.

"S…s…stay," her voice grows stronger and the trembling lessens, " _Stay away from my friends!_ "

"Hmm… How _interesting_." Because it _is_. He's the predator and she's the prey. They both know he could kill her in an instant so why is she even _trying_ to stand up to him.

Before, she was a means to an end, but now, oh, now he's _curious_.

Humans rarely change in any significant way, so was this pathetic little girl one of the exceptions, or has she always been strong and did it somehow slip his notice?

He wonders what else she's keeping from him.

"In consideration of your sense of humor, I'll overlook that if you lick the ground as you crawl away!" He watches her intently, wanting to see how long she can keep that brave face.

"R-run, Moriyama!" one of the exwires cries. It's the annoying pink haired one and Amaimon wants to throw him off the oh so conveniently located stairs. Can't they see they're interrupting. "We'll handle this!" another yells.

The girl looks confused at the demand, but it's quickly overshadowed by determination. There's something about it, about those eyes, and his head starts to hurt.

"I won't run," she says.

 _'I'm staying.'_

His heart thunders within him as memories and reality blur together.

"Because…"

 _'Amaimon… Try to understand.'_

Understand? What the hell was there to understand?

"…I…"

She was turning her back on their kind! On _him_! And for _them_?!

"I'm gonna be an exorcist!"

That Greenman familiar of hers appears, another nuisance, another _traitor_ , and Amaimon sees red.

"Then die."

xXx

Rin takes the hit and the girl lives.

Amaimon isn't sure whether that's such a good thing, despite, no, _especially_ because he feels… glad he didn't kill her? It's a new feeling for him and he _does not_ care for it.

To make matters worse, he's been experiencing the strangest urge to seek her out.

To fight, he tells himself at first, but he knows what it feels like to want to fight and this isn't it. He doesn't want to break her, and oh, how easy that would be. No, he wants… something else.

To see her? Easy enough. He tells Big Brother to put him in her class. Not in so many words, but his brother must already know because he accepts far too easily. Suspicion roused, Amaimon asks about his intentions but his brother just spouts something nonsensical about putting presents in the mouth of a horse.

xXx

Amaimon goes to class and ignores everything except the girl.

He expects the urge to lessen. The opposite happens, and he finds himself watching her outside of class. Discretely. From very far away.

She doesn't notice, he thinks, but he wonders what would happen if she did. She seems to be doing her best to ignore him when they're in class. By all accounts, that ought to bother him but Amaimon can't find it in himself to get annoyed. Another first for him.

xXx

Her house is easy to get to, once he figures out where it is. The keys his brother granted the exorcists make following someone a little more challenging, but it's nothing Amaimon can't handle.

Her garden is… nice.

He's seen better, grander places, but this place thrums with an entirely different sort of energy. The girl does all the work by herself, and with a gentleness Amaimon has come associate with humans looking after their young.

 _Her fingers diligently work the stems into her hair, careful not to bruise the petals. She notices him watching her and her fingers still as she smiles at him._

xXx

Sometimes Amaimon sees people that aren't her.

Rin mostly, or his human brother, but also the occasional nameless exorcist. They never notice Amaimon, and he's happy to see them go and leave him to his observation.

xXx

Autumn turns to winter, and Amaimon sits on a roof, chewing gummy worms and waiting for the girl - Shiemi, he finally learned her name - to come out and attend her garden.

She's late tonight. A rare occurrence.

When she finally shows up, she passes the garden by entirely and walks down the path leading to the school.

Amaimon gets up, there's only a handful of places she might go at this time of night, but she comes to a sudden stop and he notices she's crying.

The woman he now knows to be her mother stands on the steps of the house, watching her daughter, but makes no move to go to her. After a minute, she turns around and goes inside, and now it's just the two of them. Not that she knows that.

Amaimon is no good with emotions. Beel's tears are always over the top, and his brother's theatrics are just that. This is real crying, human crying, and an overwhelming part of him wants to just leave and come back later, once she's had some time to compose herself.

He stays, and the sun rises, staining the sky red with its brilliance, but to him her smile seems brighter still.

* * *

Hi there, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

The Daffodil symbolizes regard and chivalry. It is indicative of rebirth, new beginnings and eternal life. It also symbolizes unrequited love. A single daffodil foretells a misfortune while a bunch of daffodils indicate joy and happiness.  
content/aboutflowers/flower-meanings


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